Put to the test, some toys have problems

Published 7:00 pm, Saturday, December 22, 2007

What's in your child's Christmas stocking, or under the tree, may prove to be less of a gift than a source of concern.

That's the word from The Ecology Center, a nonprofit environmental organization based in Ann Arbor, which earlier this month released its Consumer Guide to Toxic Chemicals in Toys. The center tested 1,200 popular children's toys for levels of lead, cadmium, chlorine, arsenic, mercury, antimony, tin, bromine and chromium.

While lead has long been recognized as a source of possible toxicity in young children, high levels of these other elements have also been associated with reproductive problems, learning disabilities, hormone problems and cancer. Babies and young children are most vulnerable, not just because their brains and bodies are still developing, but because whatever they handle tends to go into their mouths.

Founded by community activists after the country's first Earth Day in 1970, the Ecology Center has previously released similar consumer guides to toxic chemicals in cars and child car seats. This time around, they went to retail stores in Michigan and other states, choosing from established toy industry categories including action figures and collectibles; arts and crafts supplies; building sets, blocks and models; crib toys; dolls; jewelry; musical instruments; pacifiers, rattles and teethers; outdoor toys and sporting goods, preschool and interactive toys, shoes, trains and construction toys; and vending machine toys.

Testers used a portable X-Ray Fluorescence analyzer that identifies the elemental composition of any material. What they found was encouraging, but cautionary. Twenty-eight percent of the products tested, including many toys made in China, did not contain any lead, cadmium, arsenic, or mercury.

"What that shows," said Mike Shriberg, Ph.D., policy director for the center, "is that there's no need for toxic levels of chemicals in toys. And there is no place for them in children's toys."

But that leaves nearly three times as many toys with questionable levels of chemicals, including some whose lead levels exceeded the 600 parts per million (ppm) federal recall standard for lead paint. Jewelry was the chief offender, with over a third of the items testing above 600 ppm. But high levels were also found in the Hannah Montana Pop Star Card Game pack (the carrying case), Tatiti's Brush Your Teeth! Robot, and the Dinner Party Tea Set by Starletz.

What concerns Shriberg and other consumer advocates is not just the presence of these chemicals, but the lack of activity in testing, evaluating and regulating them.

"Obviously the industry isn't necessarily interested in self-regulating, but the government isn't testing for these chemicals either," he said. "It's not our jobs, here at a small nonprofit, to be doing this. But consumers are asking for these tests. Since the guide came out, we've had nearly half a million visits to the site."

The Ecology Center will continue its year-round monitoring of toys, visiting various locations throughout Michigan to conduct on-site testing. For more information, as well as the Consumer Guide to Toxic Chemicals in Toys, visit www.HealthyToys.Org or call The Ecology Center at (734)761-3186.